Director Kimberly Peirce reflects on her war movie Stop-Loss and its lead actors, who happen to look quite nice in fall's most versatile color, gray.

Two years ago, director Kimberly Peirce cowrote a script called Stop-Loss, about a soldier's journey to Iraq and back. She cast some of today's brightest young actors, and with the war raging at home and abroad, she made her movie. Peirce recently rejoined her cast, all of them dressed in this season's most versatile color, gray, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, with photographer Matt Jones in tow. The following pictures are his, and the handwritten words scattered throughout are hers. The rest of the story belongs to all of us.

"On our first day of shooting our movie's war scene, Ryan had to lead his men -- Channing, Victor, and Joe -- through a devastating fire fight with humvees and taxis on fire. It so affected the guys that when it came time to do this shoot, we all agreed we had to restage that element of the experience."

"I was downtown when N.Y. was hit on 9/11. My little brother did two tours of duty in Iraq. We IM'ed most nghts. On his first trip home, he brought back soldier-made videos -- combat footage of the guys set to rock music. After hearing his and other soldiers' stories I knew I had to make a movie about this war from the soldiers' point of view."

"Right after Abbie arrived from Australia, we took a crash course in Texas girls. I took her to the busiest dance hall in Austin to meet some local Texans married to or dating soldiers. Before long, I saw her across the room in a crowd of cowboy boots, short skirts, and makeup, two-stepping in a line dance. She had a cowboy hat on, too."

"Ryan had to not only depict a real-life soldier; he had to earn his stripes as the leader of the cast -- I was happy to hear that after boot camp let out and the guys descended into mad partying, Ryan carried one drunk actor (who'll go unnamed) to his hotel and made sure the rest of his men made it home safe."